Tuesday, March 30, 2010

At about 12:30 this afternoon, the skies opened up near Little River State Beach ( on the north end of Clam Beach) and it hailed so hard that most people on Highway 101 just stopped.

The downpour lasted almost 10 minutes. One vehicle heading south over the Little River bridge lost control and crossed north bound lanes and even passed those to end up on a frontage road across the freeway from the weigh station at Crannel exit. I saw the apparent driver, a woman standing by the little red car with a confused look on herself but she looked to be fine. Not sure about the car, although it looked pretty good considering.

UPDATE!As of about 3 pm this afternoon, Trinidad is a winter wonderland.

I actually had to lock the hubs on my pickup to get up the hill and home.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the big health insurance bill for the final vote tonight at about 7:58 pm. I feel somewhat good about this. Yeah it's kind of scary taking this on, but somthng had to be done.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The plane in the video is part of the tsunami test that was done here in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties today. Tones were sent to radio, and TV stations as well as 911 call back to those living in low lying areas.
We got 911 call back at the station here at the foot of Humboldt Hill as we are in the tsunami danger zone.

The plane sent from Southern Oregon flew the coast and broadcast an audio message of the test. This is to inform anyone along the beaches and low lying areas that may have missed the radio, TV and phone messages.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

On behalf of my family and the entire staff here at Harper Motors, thank you so much for your patronage throughout our 98 years in business. It's been our pleasure and honor to be your choice of dealerships on the north coast. I am sending this letter to you because now I need your help.

You probably know that Harper Motors is no longer your local Jeep Dealer. During the bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC in 2009, a new company was formed, Chrysler Group LLC. Certain assets of Chrysler LLC were assumed by Chrysler Group LLC and others were not. Across America, 789 Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep dealer franchise agreements were among those assets not assumed. These dealers' long-time relationships with Chrysler were effectively terminated with only 26 days notice. Combine with the similar termination of General Motors dealerships, it's estimated that the total job losses across America approached 170,000. It also cut competition among dealers potentially leading to increased prices and reduced customer choices. In addition, it shattered the lives of thousands of small business owners.

Fortunately, the U.S. Senate, Congress, and President Obama agreed that it wasn't right. On December 16, 2009, the president signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (H.R. 3288), which included as a provision, cancelled dealers' right to seek binding arbitration with Chrysler and General Motors in order to have their franchise agreements reinstated. We elected to assert our right to binding arbitration.

You can help our effort to once again be your local Jeep dealer. Please write a letter recommending to the arbitrator in our case to order the return of our Jeep franchise to us. Please address your letter to: "To whom in may concern". Letters are to be delivered to the arbitrator by us, so either mail them, email them to info@harpermotors.com , or drop them off in person to the receptionist at our store. With your help, we can once again be here to serve you with new Jeep vehicles and parts and service for all Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles. Until then, we're happy to be here for you with new Fords and Kias, plus parts and service for all makes and models of vehicles including Chryslers, Dodges, and Jeeps.

Thank you,

Trevor Harper
General Manager

I have had nothing but good relations with Harper standing behind their cars and warranties and sent a letter of recommendation.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Local activist Jason Robo was to do a 9/11 truth workshop at the anti war rally today in Eureka. He started and was cut short due to time constraints. I was able to video his message behind the Humboldt County Court House during the event. He hosts a cable access TV show in Humboldt County called Unstacking The Deck.

There are 4 parts to the message I have provided via you tube.
Part one.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

On Friday March 12th. the skies over Humboldt were filled with jets that turned what would have been a sunny albeit cold weekend into a hazy overcast. On Monday the 15th. I photographed the skies on the way to work.

When we do weather at the radio station in can be frustrating. Sunny skies turn to this haze and what can we say?
Anyone doing a weather forcast that doesn't take jets into account is setting the public up for disapointment.

Luckily for most people they either don't look up or don't mind the weather intrusion. I would prefer a sunny day. It's not like we normally get that many and it is a shame to have them taken away by jets.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Here is a little gadget that tells you how fast your upload and download speed is on your internet connection.
At 10:25 pm tonight I tested at 981 kbps down and 190 kbps up.
At 11:14 pm it was 507 download and 242 upload.
Too slow to watch you tube videos. I use Sudden link, how fast is your internet connection?
Find out by going to:

Whilst playing a game of chess with my friend Alex, the skies opened up and dumped the second round of hail that hit Trinidad tonight. I missed the first round but saw evidence of it when I got home from work.

The second dumping came just after 9 pm tonight. We got just under 2 inches of rain and other frozen stuff in the last 24 hours.

There is a lot of snow between Interstate 5 and Highway 101 but even here on the coast driving conditions can be hazardous. When you're doing 65 in the dark and come around the curve to find half an inch of this stuff, it can give you really big eyes! Drive safe and try to stay warm.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

I am aware that we don't live in a true democracy. We are a republic. That said, I don't think the writers of our constitution meant for us to be represented by corporations. After all, we started this country with a tea party because the East India Corporation wanted unfair tax advantages that local spice and tea companies were not entitled to. We started the U.S. due to a corporation that wanted an unfair advantage over the people that lived here.
Now enter the U.S. Supreme Court and it's Citizens United verses FTC ruling that gives corporations the ability to buy our elected officials.
It's time for a Constitutional Amendment to overturn this.
Watch the video and then go to http://www.duhc.org/ for more information.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

As a resident of the 5th. District of Humboldt County, I hereby endorse Pat Higgins for Supervisor in the 5th. District.
Pat Higgins currently represents the 5th. District as Harbor Commissioner.

I have known Pat for several years and I believe that he has the integrity and leadership to properly represent us as we move into the 21st. century.

I will have more on his many accomplishments including work on the Eel River Restoration efforts and more in future posts. In the mean time see this story about the Eel River on Highboltage blog, Pat wrote a 52 page paper that is part of the story.

Local blogger Michael Moore Jr. does a blog that wants Arcata to be better. A recent post on his blog is below.An Arcata resident e-mailed me these photos. He lives off of the Samoa exit as you go South. The poor guy has had to shell his hard earned cash for a sprayer and paint on more than one occasion to deal with the Graffiti people leave.Graffiti also costs the city and local business a lot of cash that could easily go towards more productive things.

I think the city of Arcata forbids that kind of signage. Destruction of private property is also a crime. Should we pass more laws or are you suggesting some sort of vigilantism? Maybe we could put up cameras like they have in London to document and track the scum that vandalize private property.

I noticed that there aren't many comments on this blog. It could be because this blog offers no real suggestions to remedy the situation. It could be that no one has any answers. If we all had jobs and homes the situation would be much better. How do you propose we get there? Do you want a political solution? A social solution, or you in favor of a final solution? There may be more options that I haven't considered but I don't seem to be getting any real direction from this blog.

As I am not a member of Michael Moore Jr.'s blog, I was unable to post my comment. I ask, what is the point of having a blog that only people that are members can comment on? Loose the anonymous posts and do a real blog I say.

Mr. Moore Jr., if you are truly trying to effect positive change, why exclude suggestions from the common populace? Some of us find your blog disgusting, others intriguing, too bad you only want to hear from those that agree with you enough to become a member. I could never be associated with and will never condone such a blog that offers no solutions only criticisms of people that you don't want to understand. Now I know why there aren't very many posts on Arcata Can Be Better.It is censored to keep out people like myself.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

From Agence France Presse
The ruling clears the path for same-sex couples to begin applying for marriage licenses as early as Wednesday in the city, which will join the states of Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire in allow gay marriage.

Monday, March 1, 2010

As part of the deep cuts announced this week at ABC News, the network plans to close all of its physical bureaus around the country except Washington and halve the number of its domestic correspondents.

ABC News President David Westin confirmed in an interview Friday that the network's ranks of bureau correspondents, which currently number several dozen, would be cut in half and be replaced with "digital" journalists who would be expected to shoot and edit their own stories.
“We will have as many total journalists as we do now,” he said.

Although the network will keep a minimal staff presence in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Boston, it will shut down its bricks-and-mortar bureaus there and ask its remaining employees to work from the local affiliates. The Washington bureau will remain open, but its size will be substantially reduced.